Damper

ARTICLES ABOUT DAMPER BY DATE - PAGE 4

As the final seconds ticked off in the Bears' 24-7 loss to Cincinnati on Sunday at soggy Soldier Field, Thomas Jones grabbed Kyle Orton by the shoulder pads. Contrary to any cynics' thoughts, he wasn't doing so to prevent another interception, but to relay a very important message. "I wanted to make sure he knew everybody's behind him 100 percent," Jones said. "It's a team game. He's not the only one who made mistakes. Everyone out there did at some point." Indeed, Orton's five interceptions had company, from the secondary being burned for three touchdown passes of 18 yards or more to kicker Doug Brien missing a 39-yard field-goal attempt to Mark Bradley committing a momentum-killing penalty.

When MTV announced that the Video Music Awards would be about water, it couldn't have meant this. Hurricane Katrina, which hit land Thursday night, has ended some of the soirees leading up to Sunday's show. On Wednesday, host Diddy helped kick off the festivities in grand fashion, but when nighttime hit in Miami Beach, so did the rain. A hurricane warning was put in effect, and people ran down the usually crowded Ocean Drive strip to seek shelter from the downpour. Functions for Thursday and Friday at the hotel MTV has commandeered were canceled.

After a hot summer with endless strings of sunny, dry days, things seem to be beginning to change. In recent days rain has been falling at more frequent intervals and a persistent cloud cover has been keeping hot weather at bay. A frontal system stalling out downstate should prevent the 90s from making inroads into the area this week and while showers will exit this area this morning, more rain should return by Thursday as the next system approaches....

Joining a parade of companies with recalled medical devices, Baxter International Inc. said Thursday that it would stop shipping intravenous pumps used in hospitals because of a malfunction that caused a small number of pumps to stop delivering medication to patients. The Food and Drug Administration on Thursday said a shutdown of the pumps could be a "life-threatening failure" and said there may have been six injuries and three deaths associated with Baxter's Colleague Volumetric Infusion Pumps.

A proposal aimed at binge drinking may put a damper on birthday celebrations in Texas. The legislation, dubbed "the Cinderella Bill," would make it illegal for someone to drink alcohol at a bar or restaurant before 7 a.m. on his or her 21st birthday. And if your birthday falls on Sunday, you would have to wait until noon. ---------- Compiled from news services and edited by Patrick Olsen (polsen@tribune.com) and Drew Sottardi (dsottardi@tribune.com)

Well, the Boston Red Sox will get to Sunday after all. Pouring rain, which postponed Friday's American League Championship Series Game 3, guaranteed that. The best-of-seven series, led by the New York Yankees 2-0, will be pushed back a day with Game 3 on Saturday, Game 4 on Sunday and Game 5, if necessary, in Boston on Monday. The delay could be a godsend for the Red Sox because it means they could start Pedro Martinez in Game 5 off his regular four days' rest. But manager Terry Francona wouldn't commit to Martinez over Derek Lowe.

Penalties and simple missed assignments are costing Northwestern its chances to win. "The frustration comes from our own mistakes, self-inflicted wounds," receiver Mark Philmore said. "It's frustration that we can avoid when we start executing at a higher rate." Running back Noah Herron pointed out that against Minnesota, the Wildcats put themselves in a hole on 11 of 12 drives. "The one we didn't [self-destruct]," Herron said, "we scored on. Something as small as that really puts a damper on our offense.

One half of Chicago's 38 annual thunderstorm days (days in which thunder is observed at the official O'Hare Airport site) occur in the summer months (June through August). During the other seasons, Lake Michigan has a lesser influence, but in the summer the cool stabilizing effect of the lake versus the significantly warmer adjacent land reduces the number of thunderstorm days by up to 25 percent. Lake Michigan affects lakeshore region A look at data compiled by climatologist Stan Changnon reveals a decided pattern of "reduced" summer thunderstorm days at inland areas adjacent to the Great Lakes.

For thousands of people, spring in the Fox Valley usually means picnics on Island Park in Geneva, canoeing around Clark Island in Batavia or renting a paddleboat at Pottawatomie Park in St. Charles. This year, however, the islands are deserted, the boats have spent most of their time docked and those people--and the agencies and businesses that cater to them--are watching the rain fall and the river rise. "There's been an amazing amount of water dumped into the river in the last few weeks, and it shows," Geneva Park District Director Steve Persinger said.

"Rain Man" cleaned up at the 1989 Academy Awards, but in retrospect it's amazing the film ever got made. Over the course of several years, the "Rain Man" script went through many drafts and even more directors -- Martin Brest, Sydney Pollack and Steven Spielberg -- before Barry Levinson (who had already passed on the project more than once) was brought back on board, at least informally. "I was in the midst of doing preproduction on `Good Morning, Vietnam,' when I read an earlier draft," recalls Levinson from his office in New York.